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This article is by Jim Camp, the founder and chief executive of the Camp Negotiation Institute, a negotiation training organization, and author of Start with No: The Negotiating Tools that the Pros Don’t Want You to Know and NO: The Only System of Negotiation You Need for Work or Home.

Members of the Special Forces march in New York's 2011 Veterans Day Parade. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Veterans Day, the national holiday on November 11 that celebrates military veterans’ service to the U.S., is a good time to call attention to how this country is not serving them by preparing them to find post-military employment.

Last year’s jobless rate for all veterans was 8.3 percent. Veterans who served on active duty since 2001 had an even higher unemployment rate of 12.1 percent. And even though the prognosis looks better these days—September’s statistics show that the unemployment rate for all veterans was more than a full percentage point lower than the national average—I believe there is more that can be done.

Yes, unemployment and underemployment have affected large segments of our population, and veterans are part of these unfortunate economic circumstances. But even if we can’t force companies to hire more people, we can assist veterans by helping them become more attractive to potential hiring professionals in job interviews. We can do it by helping them shift from the survivalist combat mindset they embraced on the field to the more creative one that’s required in pretty much every job.

You may imagine that keeping personally alive during war isn't so different from keeping the goals and productivity of your employer alive as an employee. Why should there be a disconnect in the veterans’ minds? That’s a good question—and unless government and private sector understand the answer, our veterans will languish in the workforce.

For a military man or woman, it’s all about your relationship with your commanding officer, and during combat you have one mission and purpose: to stay alive, by being loyal to and following your commanding officer’s orders to the letter. If you're not totally loyal to those orders every second, you decrease the chances of fulfilling the mission at hand, and you increase the risk to your fellow combatants. Soldiers’ loyalty to their superiors’ instructions, which often means putting their own independent thinking on the back burner, is paramount. Every soldier must put his own thoughts aside for the greater good of the mission and his immediate team or squadron.

As you can imagine, circumstances are different in civilian life. People who work in private enterprise need to show that they’re loyal to their employers, but they must also demonstrate that they’re independent thinkers. Sometimes veterans don't fully digest the idea that it’s desirable to show that they have ideas of their own and aren't purely followers—and then human resources personnel see a somewhat passive job applicant who may not be aggressive enough.

The solution is not to change such veterans' essence and character. It is to help them transition from a military way of loyalty above all to a world where where input, suggestions, and criticisms are all welcomed, expected, required, and often generously rewarded.

As a former military man—I joined in 1965 and served in Vietnam from July 1967 through July 1968—I understand how fear of insufficient obedience and submission to the chain of command can bring personal shame and even harm to your battalion. Yet because many veterans suffer from physical injuries and emotional and mental trauma, employment counseling can be an afterthought.

Yet think of what short, even half-day, workshops geared to facilitating veterans’ transition from the combatant mindset might do. With their help a veteran could more easily understand that when interviewing for a job it’s okay and even important to ask thoughtful questions, and that eagerness to put one’s own imprimatur on a job will not be penalized.

During the second debate this year, President Barack Obama said that businesses that hire veterans should receive tax credits. And this season even the television show Homeland took the opportunity to address, through the wife of a former prisoner of war, the totally unanticipated emotional consequences resulting from the trauma that combat veterans bring back from the field. This character wanted a place where families awaiting returning soldiers could learn from other families who had experienced the heartbreak.

Make no mistake about it, not finding work after serving your country is a unique form of heartbreak. This Veterans Day is a good time to see the health and well being of the returning military as a non-negotiable personal mission.